Win puts Carolina atop NFC South
CHARLOTTE - For only the third time in franchise history, the Carolina Panthers are 6-2 at the halfway point of their season.
They rallied from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter — matching the second-best comeback in team history — to beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.
Coupled with Tampa Bay’s loss to Dallas, the win gave the Panthers sole possession of first place in the NFC South, one game ahead of the Buccaneers.
Carolina has a bye next week, which should allow enough time for injured offensive line starters Jeff Otah and Ryan Kalil (ankle sprains) to heal and be ready to return to the lineup for a Nov. 9 game at Oakland.
Only two teams in the league have a better record than Carolina — 6-0 Tennessee, which plays Indianapolis tonight, and the 6-1 New York Giants.
Being “6-2 compared to 5-3 at the break, it’s huge,” said quarterback Jake Delhomme, who threw two third-quarter touchdown passes to wide receiver Steve Smith.
“Hopefully we can look back on this game down the line and say this was a pivotal win for us. We’ve given ourselves a chance.”
The Panthers reached the NFC championship game the other two times they were 6-2, in 2003 and ‘05, and made it to the Super Bowl in ‘03.
Carolina’s chances appeared dim in the third quarter when Arizona led 17-3.
The Panthers’ offense was floundering, and Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner was dissecting the defense with pinpoint passing reminiscent of his MVP days with the St. Louis Rams nearly a decade ago.
Warner threw for 381 yards, the fifth-highest passing yardage total Carolina has allowed in a game.
“I tell you, man, that guy Kurt Warner, he’s special,” Panthers linebacker Jon Beason said.
Warner’s ability to release the ball quickly short-circuited Carolina’s heavy blitzing and pass-rushing pressure from defensive end Julius Peppers and others.
“It was very frustrating because sometimes it [felt] like no matter how fast you beat somebody, you [were] never going to get there,” Peppers said.
The Panthers defense was caught off guard when Arizona’s top two tight ends were deactivated because of injuries, causing the Cardinals to use more offensive sets than expected with four or even five wide receivers in a spread formation.
“We had to learn on the move because we didn’t get a lot of practice in [working against] four- and five-wideout sets,” safety Chris Harris said. “It was on-the-job training, I guess.”
While the defense adjusted, the Carolina offense struggled so much that players said there was a spirited locker room discussion at halftime.
“There were a lot of bleeps in there,” Smith said.
The game began to turn when Carolina got the ball for the first time in the second half with 10 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Delhomme said he noticed the home crowd was quiet and that even the Panthers bench lacked energy.
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CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina’s men’s basketball team, a Final Four favorite, will play for the first time this season against Vanderbilt — on Nov. 2 at the Smith Center.
But it’s not on the preseason schedule.
You can’t buy a ticket. It won’t be on TV.
And the score will never be made public — if one is even kept.
“We can’t publicize it, can’t let fans in, can’t give out any stats,” said UNC associate athletic director Larry Gallo, who wouldn’t even name the opponent, place or date.
So: Shhhhhhh.
Under a strange NCAA rule, Division I teams such as UNC can only scrimmage against other Division I teams if it is done in secret — doors locked, no media, no fans, no official scoring. Even when it’s conducted in a public building.
Typically, the top teams in the nation play two exhibition games against lower-division schools, foreign teams or club squads.
But teams can substitute an “informal practice scrimmage,” as it is called in NCAA rules, for a preseason exhibition. The caveat: The only people allowed in are coaches, players and staff members necessary to conduct the workout. Recruits making official visits can also attend.
The (secret) practice rule has been around for about a decade. Wake Forest, for instance, scrimmaged UNC-Greensboro last year and has another conspicuous blank spot on its current preseason schedule. Davidson, which scrimmaged at Texas last season and made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, will make a return trip to Austin in the coming weeks. Vanderbilt has also done it for the past few years.
But the private workout will be a first for the Tar Heels, who are looking to pit All-American Tyler Hansbrough and point guard Ty Lawson against better players than any Division II or III team can provide. Vanderbilt lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season and finished 26-8 under coach Kevin Stallings, a longtime friend of UNC coach Roy Williams.
Practice for NCAA teams officially begins at 5 p.m. today. The Tar Heels open the regular season on Nov. 15.
“[The private scrimmage] gives your guys an opportunity to practice against a top-ranked team, and sometimes to travel, be on the road, to go through the same routine and environment that you hope you’re going to see during the regular season,” said Davidson coach Bob McKillop, whose Southern Conference Wildcats have quietly worked out against a Division I foe for the past six seasons. He said he was not allowed to name the who and when of those opponents.
Why all the the secrecy? That remains unclear. NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent said in an e-mail: “The motivation of the bylaw is the concern over the demands placed on student-athletes and the games/scrimmages they play.”
Exhibition games, she added, are similar to regular-season games which require media, and post- and pregame responsibilities. But not private scrimmages.
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RALEIGH - Opening night in the National Hockey League is all about new beginnings. A new season, with all its possibilities. New faces in the locker room. New hope.
So it will be tonight for the Carolina Hurricanes, who open the season against the Florida Panthers at the RBC Center.
The Hurricanes missed the playoffs the past two seasons, which causes veterans such as Rod Brind’Amour to burn with intensity. That the Panthers were the team that beat the Canes in the last regular-season game last season, denying Carolina a playoff spot, only adds to it.
“That rings a big bell for a lot of us,” defenseman Tim Gleason said Thursday. “It’s a new start, a different season and two points on the line, and there’s a little revenge there, obviously.
“But we need to forget about what happened last year. This game has been a long time coming. We’re rarin’ to go.”
To look about the Canes’ locker room Thursday was to quickly grasp how much has changed since opening night last year, of how many were not in the room.
Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu were with the Chicago Blackhawks, Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves with the Ottawa Senators. Joni Pitkanen was with the Edmonton Oilers.
Anton Babchuk was playing in Russia. Michael Leighton was in the American Hockey League. Brandon Sutter was preparing for another year of junior hockey in Red Deer, Alberta.
As for Dan LaCouture, he was at home in Centerville, Mass., unsure what the year would bring. His hockey career, he feared, could be over at age 30.
For Samsonov, coming to the Hurricanes in early January — claimed off waivers — was a rebirth of sorts. In 38 games for Carolina, the winger had 14 goals and 18 assists and clearly enjoyed himself again on the ice.
“It had been a rough couple of years,” he said. “You start wondering which way things are going and wondering if you’ll ever get that opportunity again. Luckily, it did. Coming in, getting a fresh start, getting an opportunity, it made a whole difference for me.”
Trades brought Ruutu, Corvo and Eaves to the Canes last season. Babchuk, a former Carolina defenseman, re-signed with the team in the offseason, and defenseman Josef Melichar was signed to a one-year deal.
Eaves and Corvo came to the Canes in February. Corvo in particular was relieved; the defenseman played his best hockey of the season (21 points in 23 games).
“If you had said at the beginning of last year I’d be with Carolina, I’d probably put a pretty big smile on my face,” the defenseman said. “I wanted out of [Ottawa].”
Speaking of smiles, few players smile more than Pitkanen, the team’s most discussed newcomer. He came to Carolina in the big offseason trade that sent Erik Cole to Edmonton and has won over his teammates with an easygoing personality and some impressive hockey skills.
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NO. 7 BROUGHTON AT NO. 1 WF-ROLESVILLE
7 P.M., TRENTINI STADIUM
WF-R WON 14-13 IN 2007
Top-ranked Wake Forest-Rolesville (5-1) faces red-hot Broughton. The 5-2 Caps upended Leesville Road last week. Broughton’s Emery Young averages 113 yards rushing, while WF-R QB Tim Hartman gets 119 yards passing.
NO. 5 WAKEFIELD AT NO. 9 LEESVILLE ROAD
7 P.M., PRIDE STADIUM
LEESVILLE WON 37-5 IN 2007
Wakefield (6-1) knocked off previously unbeaten and top-ranked Millbrook last week behind 407 passing yards by Drew Wilkinson. Leesville (6-1) is trying to rebound from a loss against Broughton.
SANDERSON AT NO. 6 MILLBROOK
7 P.M., WILDCATS STADIUM
MILLBROOK WON 14-3 IN 2007
Millbrook (6-1) saw its world turn upside down last week in a loss to Wakefield. Wildcats QB Brian Kass averages 171 passing yards, and Kuwon Eldridge gets 126 yards rushing. Sanderson QB Jeff Massey leads an option offense with 766 rushing yards.
NO. 12 DUR. JORDAN AT NO. 4 S. DURHAM
7:30 P.M., SPARTANS STADIUM
JORDAN WON 31-21 IN 2007
Southern Durham (4-2) is 2-0 in the PAC-Six because it outscored Northern Durham 35-28 and out-defended Hillside 12-9. Jordan (4-2) has battled injuries. After winning the first four games, the Falcons fell to Northern Durham 31-13 and Hillside 14-9.
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INSIDE THE GAME
Duke coach David Cutcliffe was surprised to see Duke execute poorly and play passively on offense in the loss at Georgia Tech, considering the team had such a good week in practice. “Which concerns me,” Cutcliffe said Sunday. “Something isn’t correlating. We have to address it quickly.” In the past, he has turned up the heat on a daily drill called an inside drill. Backs and the O-line run inside plays against linebackers and the D-line. “We can’t afford to beat ourselves up too much,” Cutcliffe said. “But we need some full-speed contact to gain a little confidence running the football.”
GAME BALLS
P KEVIN JONES, WR RAPHAEL CHESTNUT: Duke would have lost the field-position battle much sooner than late in the third without strong work from both. Getting more hang time than in recent weeks, Jones averaged 39.2 yards on eight tries — a long day for a punter. Chestnut stopped one return for negative yardage and downed another at the Tech 2.
PENALTY MARKERS
DEFENSE FOR 15-YARD PENALTIES: It’s tough to criticize a defense that kept Tech out of the end zone as long as it did. But the Devils agreed a roughing-the-passer call on DL Vince Oghobaase and pass interference on CB Jabari Marshall hurt. They represented another 30 yards the offense couldn’t make up on the other end, putting more pressure on the D, which pressed harder, then made mistakes, etc. Vicious cycle.
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RALEIGH - Rod Brind’Amour wanted more minutes. Ray Whitney wanted the puck, and Cam Ward refused to let one go past him.
The Carolina Hurricanes ended the preseason Sunday with a solid 2-0 victory over the Nashville Predators, getting the winning goal from Whitney and a shutout from Ward in goal.
And, in the end, a little more ice time than coach Peter Laviolette wanted to give Brind’Amour — which was just fine with the team captain.
Whitney’s goal at 7:19 of the third period, on the rebound of a Patrick Eaves shot, finally gave the RBC Center crowd something to really cheer about, and Eric Staal later finished it off with an empty-netter. But there was much for the Canes to be pleased about in ending the preseason schedule 3-3 after an 0-3 start.
Brind’Amour, who missed nearly all of training camp after knee surgery on Sept. 16, got in his first game action and had more than 15 minutes of ice time. With the season-opener on Friday night against the Florida Panthers, it was important he get in some work in game situations.
“Lavi told me I wasn’t going to play much,” Brind’Amour said. “When he told me [Sunday] morning I was OK with it, but as the game goes on it was ‘Come on …’
“Because you do need to get in and involved. I am used to playing a lot of minutes, so it was an adjustment.”
And how did he play?
“I knew it was going to be horrible,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s OK. That’s all I wanted to get out of it.
“Hopefully it will get better and better as we move on. It was important to me to get some of the cobwebs out.”
Whitney, too. The winger has missed part of training camp and preseason games but showed little rust and was credited with six of the Canes’ 37 shots and set up Staal for a few others.
“I felt comfortable,” Whitney said. “I felt fine, timing wise. I got a little tired about halfway through the games — my legs felt a little heavy — but they came in the third again.”
The Canes, after a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers and 4-2 win at Nashville on Thursday, weren’t at their best the first two periods. But Ward was, notching 23 of his 31 saves in the first 40 minutes.
“I felt good. It’s a nice way to end the exhibition season, obviously,” Ward said. “It was nice to get in a full game and things go well.
“It’s a token to the guys in front of me. They played extremely well. The PK [penalty kill] was really strong. The guys worked hard.”
Brind’Amour said Ward was a hard worker, as well. It was more than the goaltender being in the right position.
“When you have great goal-tending it makes everything look good, and he was solid when he had to be,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought he was really good with the puck.
“He was playing the puck and giving our defensemen passes — things we haven’t seen in the past him doing. He was really doing it well today.”
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Tar Heels hope to stay grounded
CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina is back in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since November 2001. And the No. 22 Tar Heels hope they have finally found the running attack to keep them there.
Converted safety Shaun Draughn accounted for 109 of UNC’s 146 rushing yards during Saturday’s 38-12 blowout against then-No. 24 Connecticut. Draughn is just the second Tar Heels player this season - and first tailback - to exceed 100 rushing yards in a game.
Coach Butch Davis reiterated Sunday that the Tar Heels (4-1) need all three of their running backs — including Greg Little (three carries for 6 yards Saturday) and Ryan Houston (three carries, 39 yards, one touchdown)– to play well in order to be successful. Even so, it appears that Draughn, a sophomore from Tarboro who had netted just 97 yards total in his previous four games, has earned the right to be a bigger part of the attack.
“He’s got some real quickness, some explosiveness; he’s got some speed,” Davis said after Carolina matched last year’s win total. “Prior to this season, he was an unknown commodity; we had no idea what he would bring to the football team. He’s protected the ball well, and he’s run the ball well and he’s making some plays.”
Quarterback Cameron Sexton said the tailbacks and offensive line “made it a mission to be better” against the Huskies.
“We’re winning games, but these guys are hearing, ‘We can’t run the football, we can’t run the football,’ and [they] were getting tired of hearing about it,” Sexton said. “So I think those guys said, ‘We’re going to go run the football. We need to do it.’ ”
And they did it from the beginning.
After UNC’s first offensive series of the game — during which Little rushed once for no gain — Draughn entered for the second series and carried four times for 27 yards, pushing the Tar Heels into field-goal range.
Davis said Draughn was inserted early because “he played well against Miami; he popped a big, long run against Miami that was unfortunately called back by a holding call. Somewhat like how the quarterback situation went against Miami - he got in, he got hot. He made some runs, and we kind of stayed with it from that standpoint.”
A shuffle along the offensive line might have been a factor. Lowell Dyer made his first start of the season at center, allowing Aaron Stahl (who had missed time in practice after having two wisdom teeth removed) to shift back to left guard. Alan Pelc started there, in place of the injured Bryon Bishop, but Stahl was in the game early at the position he played last season.
Draughn, who also scored on a 39-yard touchdown sprint in the third quarter, said the line and tailbacks didn’t do anything different from early in the season. “We’re just getting better at it,” he said.
“We always make an emphasis on running the ball, because we need to have two threats coming in.”
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Tar Heels dominated game against Rutgers after so-so win over McNeese State
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - North Carolina coach Butch Davis was pleased by his team’s dominating Thursday night performance at Rutgers Stadium.
But what might bode the brightest for the Tar Heels’ continued rebuilding effort — and their ACC opener against Virginia Tech next weekend — is what they did before the 44-12 victory.
“The preparation we had prior to tonight’s ballgame was about as good as we’ve had in the 18 months I’ve been a head coach,” Davis said after his team broke its 20-game losing streak outside the state of North Carolina.
“We were very disappointed in ourselves and the way we played a week ago against McNeese State, and I think our players really responded.”
Davis said the coaches were tough on the players after UNC’s unimpressive season-opening victory Aug. 30. The Tar Heels went full speed, he said, and “we had four practices last week that were probably harder than any practices we had during training camp. It was old-school football; we went out and we worked and we hit and we tackled; we did a lot of stuff. And they responded.”
Indeed, the Tar Heels players credited the focused, sometimes grueling workouts for their most lopsided victory since beating Duke 52-17 in 2001.
Although the defense gave up 383 yards, the Scarlet Knights didn’t convert a play of more than 25 yards and finished 0-for-9 on third downs. Most important: UNC’s secondary was noticeably more physical than in Week 1, making hard hits and snagging four interceptions — something they focused on during the previous 10 days on the practice field.
“If the scout team gained one yard, we got blessed out about it,” said cornerback Kendric Burney, who grabbed one of the picks.
UNC still didn’t have an individual 100-yard rusher, but the offensive line was more cohesive and consistently opened more holes. The Tar Heels gained 157 yards on the ground, and quarterback T.J. Yates was sacked only once.
Another product of some intense workouts.
“Coach Davis was jumping everybody,” tailback Shaun Draughn said after a practice several days after the McNeese State win. “All that losing — that mentality — we need to get it out of our head.”
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DURHAM - In years past, Duke’s football team would not have defeated Navy on Saturday in Wallace Wade Stadium.
Instead of a 41-31 Duke win, here’s what would have happened:
* Navy would have forced a couple of turnovers late.
* The Blue Devils defense would have gone into a surrender posture during the fourth quarter.
* What few fans in the stadium at kickoff would have found relief from the steamy heat at halftime, never to return.
* The little things would have gone the other way — the Navy way — and Duke would have gladly settled for the consolation of a competitive loss.
But Duke is no longer the Duke of old, and certainly not the Duke football program of the past several years. Such is the influence of first-year coach David Cutcliffe, who quickly has convinced one of the country’s most downtrodden programs that there can be no real comfort in defeat.
“We’re a different team,” star receiver Eron Riley said. “Last year, when we played them, we lost [46-43], but we thought we were the better team. It’s about how you close the deal. We didn’t do that then. Now, we can.”
So different are the Blue Devils that they now will take a 2-1 record into this week’s open date.
The one loss — 24-20 against Northwestern — hardly was the sort of embarrassment that Duke fans have come to expect, and accept, and there’s not strong reason to think the Blue Devils can’t move on to 3-1 and 1-0 in the ACC when they face Virginia here on Sept. 27.
Heck, Cutcliffe is probably no more than three or four more wins away from wrapping up ACC Coach of the Year, and he’s doing it without Sarah Palin serving as an assistant or with a single pit bull wearing lipstick on the defensive line.
“They’re getting it done; give them credit,” said Navy’s first-year coach Ken Niumatalolo. “Coach Cutcliffe has done a great job of getting them to believe in what they’re doing.”
What Cutcliffe is doing isn’t all that exotic. Yes, he has opened up the passing game more than was the case under previous coach Ted Roof, but Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis is still a ball-control passer who looks first to Riley (three touchdown receptions against the Middies) and then to various other short-route receivers.
The Duke ground game still doesn’t scare anyone, but it is productive enough to keep opponents honest.
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The three UNC players who were testing their status in the NBA draft all said they would return to campus for next season, setting the Tar Heels up for a national title run.
Point guard Ty Lawson, forward Wayne Ellington and last year’s sixth man, Danny Green, withdrew their names from the draft Monday, the deadline for doing so. The players had entered the names in the draft, but did not hire agents to leave open the possibility of returning to school.
In statements released by UNC, the players spoke of a desire to capture the national title, something that eluded the Heels this season in a Final Four loss to Kansas.
Said Ellington: ““I am looking forward to working toward our goal of winning a national championship.”
“I look forward,” Lawson said, “to playing next season and trying to win a national championship.”
Coach Roy Williams said he supported the players’ decisions, no matter what they had been. Williams had been involved in talking with NBA teams about where the players might be drafted.
“Everyone should have the right to be evaluated in terms of possibly reaching his dreams,” Williams said in a statement. “I feel strongly that all of these young men will eventually be NBA players. The timing was just not exactly right at this point.”
The three join All-America center Tyler Hansbrough, who earlier announced he would return to UNC for his senior season.
Lawson, a rising junior, has averaged 11.3 points and 5.4 assists in his first two seasons
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